People’s Knowledge and Acceptance of the Vegetarian Lifestyle

Four out of the six people mentioned protein as a nutrient vegetarians need to be concerned about. However as long as they consume enough calories to maintain their weight, vegetarians can easily meet their protein needs. Vegetarian sources of protein are nuts, seeds, pees, corn, whole grain bread, greens, potatoes, and pasta. I included at least two sources of protein in my meal_ the corn and the walnuts. Five of the six people said that iron too was a nutrient vegetarians should be concerned about. Good vegetarian sources of iron are dried beans, spinach, beet greens, prune juice, and dried fruit. Vegetarian diets are actually higher in total iron content than non-vegetarian diets, iron stores however are lower in vegetarians because the iron from plant foods are more poorly absorbed. Citrus fruit or juices, tomatoes, and broccoli eaten at a meal help to increase the amount of iron absorbed from the meal. Two of my participants listed calcium as a mineral vegetarians need to watch. If you are a lacto-ovo vegetarian this shouldn’t be a problem but otherwise broccoli, turnip greens and fortified soy milk are high in calcium. Two people also mentioned Vitamin B12. Some fortified cereal, soy milk, and nutrition yeast are vegetarian sources of this vitamin. Once again balance and variety provide the key to health in the vegetarian lifestyle.

The vegetarian meal I provided was very good in protein, fiver, iron, phosphate, vitamin A, vitamin C, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, and poly and mono unsaturated fats. (the good fats). It was a little low on calcium and a little high in saturated fat. The saturated fat probably came mostly from the mayonnaise and salad dressings.

My predictions about what my participants thought on the nutrition quantity and food guide pyramid recommendations were very correct as four thought it excellently nutritious and excellent with the food guide pyramid. I was somewhat wrong about whether they would think the vegetarian diet was healthier than the meat eaters diet. Three participants thought that they were equally health, one thought the vegetarian one was, one responded in the fashion that you need both meat and vegetables as long as you are moderate with each, and one responded that the meat eaters diet was healthier (at least for her) since she didn’t know too much about vegetarian dishes and probably couldn’t achieve the needed balance in that type of diet. None of them would ever become a vegetarian by choice and a few quite emphatic about it declaring – Never!

Although this was a small study group, I learned that acceptance of vegetarianism isn’t as common as I thought and knowledge about it is also not widespread. To the big meat eaters- Beef-Its What’s For Dinner.